You Don't Say - 9781138540804

Taylor & Francis

In this era of political correctness, it is often impossible to say things as one would like > \nIn this era of political correctness, it is often impossible to say things as one would like. Indeed, certain ways of feeling and talking that were once acceptable are now, in effect, forbidden. Of course, taboos extend further than speech. Social and sexual inhibitions are also evident. Benjamin DeMott argues that the very least a society should do is to try to understand the meaning of its own inhibitions. As he writes in this new edition of You Don't Say, \""a supple awareness of the effective censorship of the day can toughen resistance to clich and stereotype, and is absolutely indispensable to the survival of sharp minds.\""\n\n At the center of You Don't Say is the proposition that the present age of personal liberation has created as many inhibitions as it has abolished. Some of our new-found freedoms could be employed with a sharper sense of tact. And some freedoms we have lost e